Rough Basic Plan: Drive up Moumoukai Hill Road. (Parking near the end of the road). From the car park walk up Mine Road through to Mind Road Track, turn left with Intersection of Upper Mangatawhiri Track toward Kohukohunui Trig, return back via Kohukohunui Track
Estimated time: 8 to 11 hours (Depending on pace, including stops)
Normal day walk with the Auckland Hiking Group revisiting some regular haunts in and around the Waitakere Dam. Pictures posted to NUI.NZ
Noticed anecdotally that a few commentators have been suggesting the Housing market is “Finally turning”. I feel (fear) this may be premature. The fundamental Demand side factors appear to be still present and instead of a flattening of prices in the longer term, I see a period of consolidation before house prices across the country will possibly ramp up again continue their unrelenting march to higher levels of (in my personal view) pricing insanity…
On broader economic matters… I have a confession to make, I declare I no longer feel I have any understanding of present day economics, I struggle to make much sense of why the crowds and markets will act in the way they do. At the moment, the only things I feel I have to go on is both “A trend is more likely to continue than reverse” and “The Trend is your friend” as being the two (related) statements which seem to have any relevancy.
Ended up in March stopping out of my “Short” position against the NYSE:SPY / S&P 500 Index (which I only held for a few short months) and immediately went “Long” on the underlying after determining that the the consolidation was merely a continuation. Perhaps thanks to time decay, the actual loss on the short position was minimized to breaking even. (I don’t plan to use derivatives much apart from the occasional hedge)
A spontaneous trip to do some little walks up north in and around Orewa and Waiwera. Photos uploaded to NUI.NZ. Click image below to go to the photo album.
Sunday walk with Auckland Hiking Group doing the Mangatawhiri reservoir loop. Click photo below to access the gallery (NUI.NZ)
They say Facebook causes depression. For me, it’s probably not the “Comparing yourself with others” / F.O.M.O (Fear of Missing out) trigger that I keep seeing exhorted in the media (in the lightest way possible, that aspect of Facebook has probably had the opposite effect),
What has instead perhaps “dampened my mood” is seeing the world’s masses getting deeply hooked and dare I say addicted to the platform owned by a corporate juggernaut (which we are collectively responsible for becoming a juggernaut, by virtue of joining the platform and getting our friends to join courtesy of the “network effect”) intent on eating up the entire Internet and irreversibly integrating itself into many people’s lives.
I really struggle to see this as a good thing for us collectively in the longer run. I question our decision to rely on a sole proprietary platform for keeping in touch with friends and family. I continually freak out about how much power over our lives we are collectively handing over to be concentrated into the hands of a single for-profit entity such as Facebook, especially so given their past and present behavior. Have people forgotten about “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”?
I’ve referred to Facebook as “Face-borg” for this reason. It is really the Web’s version of Startrek’s Borg collective, relentlessly assimilating everything in it’s path.
For about a year, noticed that the pricing many Caltex service stations set between their 91 octane and 95 octane products has somehow diverged percentage wise from about 5% to about 15%. I did inquire with Caltex New Zealand as to the reason why the gap has widened to the extent that is has, though it appears they’ve palmed off the responsibility to individual service stations, while the said stations have pushed it back on to Head Office.
Anyway, in the interim, I shall exercise my responsibility as a consumer (as I did to Two Degrees Mobile) and go to their sister brand, Z Energy or to Mobil where both brands often have their 95 RON petrol priced about 15-21c cheaper than Caltex.
It also does bring in to question how often Caltex turns over their 95 product as well as I have noticed my engine recently appears to behave rather differently between different tank fulls of the same Caltex product. For example, one tank full of Caltex 95 RON gasoline may feel quite perky, while with another tank full from the next Caltex station, my engine may instead feel surprisingly sluggish with me needing to noticeably mash the accelerator a bit harder to get up hills.
So far with Z Energy, all my tank fulls have felt a bit more consistent and dare I say it, smoother running with a small increase in fuel economy (according to my written logs) overall. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it’s because Z Energy turn their 95 RON fuel over more frequently.
Short 450m climb up to Karangahake Trig and back down the same way. The Settled forecast did not eventuate this time (mostly ended up with White) so will be one I have to come back again to do with a larger group and probably part of a weekend trip.
Click picture to view gallery (on NUI.NZ)…
Track conditions on Mt Karangahake Walk Track were very wet and slippery. Be very cautious particularly while descending down the track.
Short trip down to Wellington to Attend the New Zealand Shareholders’ Association Annual Conference. Prior to that, paid a visit to the Zealandia Eco Sanctuary… Click image below to access the gallery.
Recommend paying the extra for a guide for your first visit to the Sanctuary just to get an insight on where the wild life is hiding. The Sanctuary has yearly access options available which Is an option I would take up myself should I live in the Wellington Area. Aside from the main visiting area, the Sanctuary has quite a network of walking tracks [PDF].
NZ Shareholder’s Association conference on the following day was packed and fully subscribed. A number of speakers presented including…
…Recordings will be posted to the NZ Shareholders website for paid up NZSA Members.
Jetstar has so far been good to me (as is Air New Zealand with other trips). No Delays this trip. Maybe one advantage Jetstar has over Air NZ is that they offer meals with the Flexi ticket option at least for their Auckland to Wellington Leg (though I’m sure the extra 2nd meal I got on the way down wasn’t meant to happen and probably came about when I encountered a bug with their online booking system trying to select meals and seats)
Note: These are simply quick thoughts that have been jotted down. They have been categorized as “Insignificant” for very good reasons. They may contain hunches which will be unsubstantiated, unqualified and unquantified. Some of these points (each separated into their own paragraphs) may or may not be spawned into more substantial posts.
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The commentators of Interest.co.nz again
Housing market is deflating? I’d say given the behaviour of the market in recent years, I believe it’s a little bit too early to call.
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Global Liquidity feels bubbly.
There is a perhaps a concern with in me that if something of sufficient size does happen to impact the credit markets negatively to kick off some panic, the resultant domino effect is probably going to be unstoppable.
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NZ Clothing brands
I regularly see this on the many clothing labels…
DESIGNED IN NEW ZEALAND
Made in China
Additionally at the Agricultural Fieldays, there were a plethora of merchants that had signs out for exclaiming they had… “100% New Zealand Wool Jumpers”, with the word “made” conveniently omitted.
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Bushbuck Sales and Marketing Tactics
I get Bushbuck’s Email Newsletters now and again, I can’t remember why I signed up, it may have been to participate in some raffle at a Fieldays event at some point.
The stated recommended retail pricing (RRP) of their garments I feel appear to be the getting up there, almost the same price as what SWAZI Apparel sell their high quality, locally New Zealand Made equivalents for. Seems From there, Bushbuck have Sales every now and again which heavily discount off of their RRP which is probably in my view, more discounting back to “normal price”.
May be Bushbuck gear is indeed quite good, However in truth, my image of their brand may have been impacted a little when they keyword stuffed their TradeMe auctions with the names of other outdoor gear brand.
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Auckland Traffic, specifically South east
Traffic Patterns seem to be different each day, it’s a guessing game as to which route is fastest out of Highbrook / East Tamaki.
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Stuffed full of Shopping mailers
A person purportedly by the name of Sandra Young had used the email address: Sandra [AT] young [dot] Kiwi to sign up to several Melbourne retailer mailing lists. As a result, the “Catch All” email address for young.kiwi has been filled up with adverts and promotional mailers.
Main highlights included Dukono (in North Maluku), Komodo, and Kelimutu. Running from about 29th July 2017 to 6th August 2017 on a rather packed schedule with about 12 different flights in total cris-crossing over the Eastern side of Indonesia.
Matt Davison’s Video of our Dukono Trip
Places stayed at (Will hyperlink these when I get over my Indonesian cold)…
Assorted Notes and observations… (Still to be filled out as of 2017-09-06)…
A large portion of the Indonesian private vehicle Fleet are Toyota “Avanza” and “Kijang” Multi-purpose vehicles. The older Kijang has a larger 2.0 litre motor with it’s smaller successor, the Avanza, having a smaller 1.5 litre motor.
The driving style over much of Indonesia is typical of many Asian national (except Singapore / Hong Kong) with a more aggressive driving style and which will often strike fear into Westerners who are not used to it.
The roads in the more remote parts of Indonesia that we visited where suprisingly good with many key routes sealed. Have to admit, was thinking the island of Halmahera to be mostly of gravel / dirt roads.
Everyone in the group took Anti-Malarials as we had entered into areas which were deemed as high risk.
Winter wonderland of thick white snow blanketing the Central Plateau. Spontaneous trip to view the snow. Click photo below to view Gallery.
After landing back in Auckland, Embarked on the Waterview, Tunnel Walk, kindly hosted by the NZTA. Could walk about 900m in via the Northnound tunnel then crossing over to the southbound tunnel to walk back. (Though have to admit, was thinking we could walk straight through to the other end)
Beware, Fixed Speed cameras at each end and variable speed limit up to a Maximum of 80km/h.
I don’t know what it is, I didn’t realize “Chemtrails” (from commercial passenger jets) were still a wide spread concern. After checking my Facebook messages (as I do every few days), I let curiosity get the better of me and clicked on one of the seemingly random suggestions which Facebook often show on the side of their web interface, then came across this post. I have to admit, at first, I thought it was either a prank, joke or sarcasm and it took me awhile to sink in that some of the people were actually serious about the issue.
It was probably more the numbers of people whom were subscribing to the Chemtrail theory, and the resultant “group think” which threw me off the most (and led me to go find the nearest brick wall). After further casing the corridors of the face-borg cube, found that the Chemtrail thing was actually quite well subscribed to across the confined of the ‘borg cube and to a lesser extent, beyond into the wider general Internet. I don’t what is driving it, is this the filter bubble / echo chamber thing that many critics of Facebook mention?
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External link(s)…
23rd to 26th June 2017 – Post Work formalities Road trip to the Grampians and The !2 Apostles (Now really only 7) along the Great Ocean Road before flying back home to Auckland.
After the Software Technical symposium concluded on Friday Afternoon, grabbed a rental car and drove to Halls Gap next to the Grampians National Park, staying at Comfort Inn Halls Gap. Continue reading “Grampians and Twelve Apostles Trip Notes”
Return to the Whangarei area to catch up with a few friends. A short overnight walk to Peach Cove Hut via the shorter and direct Peach Cove Track, returning via Te Whara Track and staying up at the peak to take in the views of the Whangarei Area. Later on a short flat walk around Whangarei’s town basin. Pictures posted here.
Short little Loop Walk Around Whatipu’s Omanawanui Track. (pictures posted to NUI.NZ)
Route Details as follows… (Best looked at in conjuction with a topo map)
From Whatipu Car park. Walked towards the beach, follow signs to Omanawanui Track and then a reasonably steep climb up to the first (lower) peak along Omanawanui Track, then a descent and a steep climb up to the second peak. We descend for a second time before meeting a gradual incline up to the junction of Whatipu Road. Cross the road.
After crossing the road, continue along track till the junction of Puriri Ridge track and Kura track. Turn left down Kura track which descends somewhat steeply then flattens out before the first stream crossing. There are 4 stream crossings in total. From there, it is a relatively flat path (with a few fallen trees to climb over) back to Whatipu Road.
Once at Whatipu Road, cross over the Road bridge and you should be back at Whatipu Car Park.
Other notes
Short stroll, st along a short part of the the Bethells Coast to Taetahinga Point and back to the track carpark… More to maintain (Hiking specific) Fitness or at least hopefully stop it from falling away too much!!
Updated: 25 July 2020 – Still no issues with the motor. Also fixed up some errors and typos in this post.
From the “Individual experience not matching conventional wisdom” files…
The NZ AA have expressed concerns surrounding the “D4” (including the 1AZ-FSE) or GDI (Gasoline Direct Injection) motors on their publications due to issues of Potential carbon build up on the intake valves, potentially restricting the airflow to the engine as a result of the petrol being injected directly into the combustion chamber as opposed to washing over the intake valves as per normal port injected engines. They also recommend running Toyota D4 motors on the “Highest Octane possible”. Continue reading “98 RON Petrol in a Toyota D4 Motor”
6th to 7th May 2017 – Explore around Port Waikato and Harker Reserve. Originally meant to be a comet shower observation trip though Forecasts weren’t correct. Click here for Album
